In the news

These are some of the places Adam has been interviewed by or had his research featured in. 

 

Swim Like a Gator, Breathe Like a Bird

Science Magazine

Summers says that one-way flow could explain why archosaurs "went from bit players to dinos" when Earth's oxygen levels dipped suddenly about 250 million years ago following a major extinction event.
 

When Science meets art

Society of Digital Artists

"They asked me to come in and talk about things like fish shapes and colors, and I ended up teaching an essentially graduate-level ichthyology course to the Pixar staff."

"nemo" no fish story thanks to UCI adviser

The Orange County Register

Being a technical adviser on a cartoon requires certain compromises. That's to be expected. What surprised Summers, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine, was the corners "Finding Nemo" didn't cut. 

 

Science at the Movies: The Fabulous Fish Guy

Nature Magazine

Last year's movie smash Finding Nemo impressed many marine biologists with its scientific accuracy. Alison Abbott meets the young expert in fish biomechanics who helped to breathe life into the film's stars

UCI Professor to "podcast" classes

The Orange County Register

Summers, who will co-teach the class with Matt McHenry, is the first UC Irvine researcher to produce a class podcast. But he's just one of scores of professors nationally who are using podcasts to supplement live lectures.

Crushing experience

National Wildlife Magazine

How does a cownose stingray, with no bones in its jaws, chomp on hard-shelled prey such as mussels and snails? In the same way a fossilized animal becomes hard as rock: with minerals, reports biologist Adam Summers

 

Giant Bird Could Have Flown at 150 MPH

NPR

Adam Summers, an expert on biomechanics at the University of California at Irvine, says that in today's world, the heaviest living flying birds weigh no more 40 pounds.

Tarantula a Surprising spider

The Orange County Register

"We were floored," said Adam Summers, an evolutionary biologist at UCI. "Everyone knows that spiders spin silk from spinnerets on their hind-ends (abdomen area). But we had no idea that this charismatic spider (the zebra tarantula of Costa Rica) also could do it with their feet."